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Sunday, 31 January 2016

The last month has been a fairly quiet one after the madness that is working the Christmas season in retail, and now I get some recovery time in my first holiday since the beginning of November. Next Saturday is the London Bookshop Crawl which Bex has been organising, and which I am so excited for. A big group of us are getting together to stock up on books and cake, beginning at Foyle's and ending at the big Waterstone's in Piccadilly before heading off to Pizza Express afterwards. I've met Bex and Laura before, last year, and I recently found out one of the other attendees, Hannah, also lives on the Isle of Wight, so we met up for coffee the other day to get to know each other a little, and ended up geeking out wildly about books in general, and TV and Netflix series - always a good starting point for a new friendship. And I'm very excited to meet a couple of people who I've "known" online for years but never met.

So, how did I do with my January reading?

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers (In progress)

Upstairs at the Party - Linda Grant

The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King

Silence is Goldfish - Annabel Pitcher

The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness

Disclaimer - Renee Knight

Career of Evil - "Robert Galbraith"

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen (reread)

Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens

Also Read:

The Ghost Hunters - Neil Spring (begun December 2015)

Sofia Khan is Not Obliged - Ayisha Malik

Second Term at Trebizon - Anne Digby

The Tree of Seasons - Stephen Gately

The Trebizonboarding school stories were one of my favourite series when I was growing up, alongside the Chalet School and Malory Towers books, but they were rather lesser-known than the others, marking the very end of the school story fashion. So imagine my delight when I learned that Egmont have started reprinting the books again. I found this out through Robin Steven's Twitter feed, and practically started screaming with excitement. I'm pretty sure that Miss Stevens must be at least partly to thank for this rediscovery, with the success of her Wells and Wong mysteries making old-fashioned boarding schools cool again. Yes, I do own all but one of the series already, but I actually quite like the modern-style covers a lot more than, say, the Enid Blyton redesigns which I have grumbled about before, and I'm so pleased that a new generation will get to meet Rebecca, Tish, Sue and the others. I've no intention of buying second copies of all of the books, but I do need to show my support of the reprint, don't I? (Plus one or two of my old editions are very battered.)

February To-Read Pile

Note: I don't expect to stick closely to this list, what with the bookshop crawl expected to add at least another half-dozen books to my shelf, but these are some of the books I'd like to read in the not-too-distant future:

Left over from January:

The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness

The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King

Upstairs at the Party - Linda Grant

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clark

New or re-entries:

A Place Called Winter - Patrick Gale

The Book of Strange New Things - Michel Faber

Books I want to reread soon:

The Charioteer - Mary Renault

American Gods - Neil Gaiman.

American Godswas on my shortlist but not read on Bex's last Rereadathon (are we going to do another one this spring?) With the work apparently coming along nicely on the TV adaptation, and the casting of Ricky Whittle as Shadow, (not someone I know, but he looks the part more than any other actor I've seen suggested) that book has made its way back onto my to-read list. I've read most of Gaiman's books several times, and American Gods seems to come out every two or three years or so. It's time once more.

Wednesday, 13 January 2016

Sofia has recently decided to commit to a life of celibacy. Her sister is due to get married, one of her best friends is about to marry a man who already has another wife, and her family just will not stop badgering her about when it's going to be her turn. But she's just broken up with her boyfriend, who wanted her to move in with his interfering family. One day, after an unfortunate incident on a London Underground train, she finds herself commissioned to write a book about Muslim Dating...

It's unusual to find a protagonist in mainstream fiction these days with a strong religious faith (of any religion.) If you do, it's either downplayed, showing the characters indistinguishable from anyone else but for a few words or rituals. And when religion is explored in depth it tends towards an anguished crisis of faith. And in particular, Islam gets fogged to the outside view by ignorance, misinformation and fear. Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged shows us an insider's view, an ordinary British Muslim whose faith is an integral part of her life. She chooses to wear the hijab (much to the dismay of her mother) and her working life brings its own challenges in finding a quiet place to pray five times a day. She is also loud, stubborn, witty, likeable and intelligent, an occasional smoker and lover of lemon puffs and chocolate hobnobs - a likeable and relatable character.

I picked up Sofia Khan at work when unpacking the new books delivery, and knew after looking through a few pages that I had to buy it. By the time Sofia shouts at a racist about terrorists not wearing vintage shoes, she had become real to me: I could see her, hear her voice, I needed to know her story. Despite her determination to stay single, Sofia ventures out into the dating world for "research" for her book, with its perils and pitfalls. But the most significant relationships come into her life through other means: the American with whom she has a hilarious bantering chemistry, the former fiance returns, and then there is a slower-building friendship that may become something else. Given the genre - the romantic comedy - it's inevitable that Sofia will find love somewhere, but it is not a straight-forward conclusion. Along the way, Sofia falls under pressure to please her family who just want to see her happily married, but is she making the right choices, and if not, how will she know?

Sofia Khan is a cheerful read, and had me giggling every few pages, but also made me feel for her sorrows and dilemmas in her quest to find happiness for her friends and family as well as for herself. She doesn't always make the right decisions, and with mistakes come consequences that are not easily brushed away. Sofia's family might not understand her choices, but what they do have, beneath the bickering and nagging, is love, which shines through the inter-generational conflict, in a wonderfully rounded and believable cast of characters. My only complaint about this book is that one of the promising new friends was written out of the story about halfway through and barely warrants a mention afterwards. But there were so many other great characters to spend the rest of the book with. I came away from this book feeling as though I'd made a lot of new friends in the Khan family, and in Sofia's closest circle, Hannah, Fozia and Suj, Katie at work, and Conall (not Colin!) the grump next door who has hidden depths.

I'm really excited for Sofia Khan, which I'm hoping will be one of 2016's big debuts. It's been chosen by WH Smith travel stores as part of their Fresh Talent promotion, so this ought to help to make the book one of the big new hits of 2016. I want to get people reading and talking about Ayisha Malik and Sofia Khan, and good news - there is a sequel in the works. I can't wait to see what happens next.

You can read an interview with Ayisha Malik about Sofia Khan at the New Statesman here.

Sunday, 10 January 2016

Apologies for the lack of any posting yesterday. I'd fully intended to write my last long-overdue post from last year on Friday to schedule for Saturday, but then Hamilton happened, and I was somewhat distracted. And yesterday I've been at work, which is getting nice and quiet again. While everyone else has been groaning about going back to school or work after their holidays, I've been thinking "hooray, it's the furthest point of the year from the pre-Christmas and post-Christmas madness!"

Saturday and Sunday's reading:

I've begun my reread of Pride and Prejudice. It's been a long time since I've read that. It could even be my least-read Jane Austen book because I know it so well from all the million and one adaptations and stories inspired by it, the quintessential rom-com. So coming back to it, I'm reminded anew why it is one of the best-loved books of all time. Despite being written 200 years ago, it's very modern in characterisation and in Jane Austen's sharp and spiky observations. I would not like to get on her wrong side!

But I'm also cheating on Pride and Prejudice with another rom-com, which I unpacked at work yesterday: Sofia Khan Is Not Obliged, which could and probably already has been described as "the Muslim Bridget Jones." I idly thumbed through that book and by the time I'd read about the titular heroine shouting at a racist about terrorists not wearing vintage shoes, I felt as though Sofia was standing right there with me. I could see her, I could hear her voice, and I wanted to know her better. It's a really refreshing read after the darkness of the two thrillers I've read this week, laugh-out-loud funny, and it's the first read of 2016 that I'm going to be pushing at everyone to read. On Thursday I had a customer come to me for "recommendations of romantic comedies," which I had trouble with because it's not really a genre I read very often. If only he'd come in just a few days later! So, mysterious stranger, if by some unlikely chance you're reading this: READ SOFIA KHAN!
And on that note, I will go and continue doing likewise.

Wrap-Up (Monday 11th January)
I didn't quite manage to read the four books I'd aimed for, partly because of engrossing myself in Hamilton on Friday, and then last night I got caught up in "just one more episode" of Star Trek: Deep Space 9 instead of finishing my book. I followed a couple of new blogs, and said hello to a few of my old favourites, but overall, once I got back to work on Wednesday, I didn't spend so much time interacting with other bloggers or doing challenges or twitter chats as I would have liked. Something to work on for the next readathon, I think. On the plus side, I've written more blog posts in the past ten days than I did for the whole final quarter of 2015.

The final stats:

Books finished: Disclaimer, Silence is Goldfish, Career of Evil

Other books begun: Pride and Prejudice, Sofia Khan is Not Obliged

Total pages read: 1460 (averaging 208 and a half per day.)

Best reading day: Tuesday with 433 pages.

Worst reading day: Friday with 92 pages

Favourite book: Sofia Khan is Not Obliged, even though I haven't finished it yet. Look out for a fangirling review later this week.

Friday, 8 January 2016

Hello all. I've been at work for a couple of days so decided not to write readathon updates in my free time, but devote the time to actually reading over my lunch breaks and evenings instead. My third book of choice was Career of Evil by "Robert Galbraith" (who I think we all know is J. K. Rowling.) I don't think it was quite as good as The Silkworm, which followed detective Cormoran Strike as he looked for clues to a murder within the victim's manuscript of a novel, but it still did not disappoint. Career of Evil is another really dark thriller, with moments of pitch-black humour which make way for an investigation into a trio of very, very unpleasant characters. Although the suspects in this novel were limited to three, Rowling - sorry, Galbraith - keeps you guessing right to the end, "It must be this one," "Nope, here's a clue that says it can't be..." and when at last Cormoran Strike reveals the incriminating evidence, we find that, once more, the clues were there if only I hadn't overlooked them. Clever. Meanwhile, all I could do was watch helplessly, as Robin Ellacott, Strike's assistant, made some of the biggest mistakes of her life...

After the darkness of Career of Evil and Disclaimer earlier this week, it's time for some comfort reading, and I fully intended to spend today re-reading Pride and Prejudice. But life had other plans, and instead I got somewhat distracted listening to the soundtrack of the Broadway musical Hamilton which nearly everyone on the internet has been raving about for the past few months. I'd been trying to resist the hype, not being a fan of hip-hop or US political history, but I succumbed and have spent most of the day listening to it instead of reading. I'm not going to become completely obsessed with the show, but I did enjoy the songs, became emotionally involved in the fates of the characters (some of which I knew a little about, most of which I did not) and have had the whole thing in my head ever since. It piqued my interest in Alexander Hamilton and the early years of the USA as a nation, gave me a hunger for more knowledge on the subject. A couple of bloggers I follow, Sarah and Alley are taking part in a readalong of Hamilton's biography, and although I've no plans to join in the reading, I'll certainly be stalking their #Hamalong posts, which may have played a part in persuading me to give the show a chance. I'm glad I did, even if it did disrupt my readathon.

Thursday, 7 January 2016

One of the books shortlisted for 2015's Man Booker Prize, A Little Life appeared to be the favourite to win but ultimately lost out to Marlon James' History of Seven Killings. Hanya Yanagihara tells the story of a group of friends living in New York, starting out as college graduates beginning their careers, and seeing them through several decades. Charismatic but unpredictable artist J.B. and architect Malcolm, but really focuses on kind-hearted actor Willem and most of all Jude, who never speaks of his past, and is something of an enigma. The first section gave a very relatable depiction of people in their late twenties still trying to figure out what it means to be an adult.

Yanagihara uses an interesting mixture of narrative voices: first and third person, with a touch of second as well, to give a variety of perspectives of Jude's "little life." When shown from Jude's own point of view, he is not named - which can prove a little confusing when he is only identified with a shared pronoun "he," although for the most part it is kept fairly straightforward. This technique indicates his lack of self-regard, self-importance or even sense of a personal identity. Jude and his friends are a tight-knit circle but not an exclusive friendship. As the years go by, relationships between the quartet change, get strained and fixed, drift apart in adulthood but always share their bond. Yet J. B. Malcolm and Willem can't figure out what to make of Jude, no matter how much they love him, for he never speaks of his past. And it emerges he has a very good reason for not wanting to speak about it.

A Little Life is an emotional rollercoaster, between the heights of the love of the people in Jude's present, and the crashing lows, all the different kinds of self-destructiveness that comes as a souvenir from fifteen terrible years of his childhood. You come to really care about these people, feel their sorrows and their frustration when Jude just won't admit he needs or deserves help. At other times, you revel in the relief and joy that things are finally going well - but always, hanging over your head, is the threat of another relapse. And every so often, Jude reveals a hint of the trauma in his backstory, and it's harrowing stuff, but for the most part I think, tactfully handled.

However, near the end of the flashbacks, I found myself questioning how plausible that every adult in Jude's life for fifteen years was a complete monster. Of course I know there are some really evil people out there - but for one kid to encounter so many, everywhere he went, and no one else, brought me out of the novel to ponder if perhaps Yanagihara had gone a little over the top with Jude's tragic backstory. Then, with one shocking plot twist in the last hundred pages, I felt more and more fearful of the ending. The love and goodness of Jude's friends and adopted family wasn't enough to keep the book from leaving a bad aftertaste. The penultimate section of the book would have been a fine and satisfying note to end on, although as hard as I tried to resist the fact, the ending was always inevitable. But how I wished it wasn't. It's been nearly two months since I began writing this review, and over that time, the dismay and disbelief from the last hundred pages or so have been my lingering impression of the book, quite overshadowing all that impressed me through the majority of the book. A Little Life is a book that stays with you long after you put it down, which is a point in the favour of any book, surely. But it's a shame that what I remember after I finished the novel was not the same as what drew me back to its pages through the reading process.

Wednesday, 6 January 2016

You can't beat a good Star Wars film for the ultimate cinema experience. When those words flash up on-screen: "A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away," and the triumphant theme music blares around you in surround sound, with the narrative crawling up the screen: this is what the movies were made for. To watch a new Star Wars movie like that: it feels a little like living through a moment in history, a nostalgia for a time before I was born. And yes, I know I have experienced this before, but those were episodes I and III, and we don't talk about them.

Admittedly, I'm not a Star Wars obsessive. I love the films - the original trilogy, that is, I have no strong feelings about the prequels which I regard as an optional extra - but I wouldn't be able to tell you the names of many character not named in script, and I haven't read any of the Expanded Universe novels. A decade ago I argued in favour of the series in a Wars vs Trek debate with one of my friends; now I have turned to the Dark Side as this blog has documented. But it doesn't have to be an either-or thing. Star Wars is magnificant, magical storytelling at its finest.

In the promotional material for The Force Awakens, fans across the world were asking the same question: "Where's Luke?" We knew that Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford and Carrie Fisher were all signed up to reprise their most famous roles in the new installment, so what was the big secret? Had Luke, dear, eager, pure Luke Skywalker turned to the Dark Side? What a punch in the gut that would be. Or perhaps, almost more unthinkable, he'd actually died in the time since Return of the Jedi and would only appear as a Force ghost...

All became clear from the start of the opening crawl. "Luke Skywalker has vanished." Well played, J.J. Well played. Out-of-universe, we'd inadvertantly been asking the same questions as the characters in-universe. Where's Luke?
Luke, who turns up only at the very end, stouter and bearded and oh so sad, and Leia - now General Organa - appear really only as cameos in this film (much like Leonard Nimoy as the elder Spock in the 2009 Star Trek reboot.) Han Solo has a bigger role,but the focus is solidly on the next generation of characters. There is Poe Dameron, the star fighter pilot in Leia's Resistance to the First Order, the new baddies. Then there is Finn, formerly known as stormtrooper FN 2187, who has defected from the Dark Side and just wants to get away, but keeps on being drawn back to danger on the planet of Jakku. Finn is lovely character, fearful yet brave, with some great moments when he tries to be all chivalrous and rescue Rey, who is quite capable of saving herself, thankyouverymuch. Rey is a resourceful, rather angry young woman who was abandoned on Jakku as a child and left to fend for herself as a scavenger on a junkyard. And it is she who is at the heart of The Force Awakens; she who fills the ordinary teenager-turned-hero role originally held by Luke (and isn't it great for little girls to have a hero of their own?)

And as for the villains. Out of the ashes of the evil Empire has risen the First Order, overruled by Supreme Leader Snoke (a giant hologram of a creature) but the face of the villains is unmistakeably Kylo Ren, who proved to be a far more intriguing and multi-faceted character than I could have imagined. I saw his image in the promotional material and said, "Seriously?!" J. J. Abrams had replaced the most iconic baddies of all time, Darth Vader, with another tall dude with a cloak and a bucket on his head?

But that's the point. Kylo Ren idolises Darth Vader - conveniently ignoring the fact that he'd switched back from the Dark Side in the end - and of course he's never going to be as impressive, or live up to Vader's memory. He is powerful with the Force, but unstable, unhinged, lacking in self-control. There's a wonderful moment where one of his minions (no, not a little yellow squeaky banana-man! Despicable Me has ruined that word forever) comes to Ren with a look of terror on his face, to confess a failure to recapture the adorable droid BB8, with its map of "where to find Luke Skywalker." Being used to Darth Vader, the minion - and the viewer - is prepared for a ruthless and speedy death. Instead, Ren turns his lightsaber onto his expensive and complicated machinary. Where Vader was cold, Ren is hot-headed, immature, dangerous yes, but not fully-grown into his power.

And Kylo Ren does have a lot of power. How could he not? For before he wore the mask and took on the name Kylo Ren, he was simply Ben. Ben Solo, son of Han and Leia, nephew to Luke, grandson of Darth Vader himself. As a trainee Jedi, he turned on the rest of his class and slaughtered them all, it seems, causing a devastated Luke to disappear to an unknown planet. But what could have happened to turn the son of our heroes to the Dark Side? What kind of parents were Han and Leia? Could they have done anything to prevent his fall? Ren's commitment to the Dark is not absolute; we see him wrestle with the temptation to turn back to good, and his mother believes there is hope yet. And Han, the cynic, though he suspects Ben is lost forever, reaches out to him nonetheless. They meet on a bridge (it is always a bridge) and Han urges his son to come back with them. That would be interesting, wouldn't it? To have the bad guy in the midst of the Resistance, with his parents, striving to come back to the light. That would have been an interesting Episode Eight plot. And it looks, for a moment, as though Ren is tempted. He falters. He expresses his inner turmoil and anguish over "what must be done." And then I had another horrible dawning realisation, as Ren handed over his lightsaber. It looked awfully like he was begging Han, his own father, to kill him, to put him out of his misery. There would be a painful struggle, but I didn't believe Han could do it. He's not as hardened as he wants you to believe...

But as it happens, he was saved from having to make that agonising decision, once Ren activates his lightsaber just as it's directed at Han's heart.

I did not see that coming. I should have seen that coming, but I did not. I fell for it. I fell for that manipulative piece of work and gaped in disbelief as Han reached out to his son, forgiving him even for his own murder, and tumbled off the bridge into the darkness. Well. That made things much more interesting! And we see that there is more to Kylo Ren than the wannabe villain emo kid with a bad temper. Can there be any coming back from this?

I'm pleased to be able to conclude that Star Wars has recovered from the disappointment that was the prequel trilogy, and is back up to a high standard. My only criticism, bringing it down to four stars instead of five, is the amount of repetition, visual and plot, from the original movie. Instead of the Empire there is the First Order. Instead of the Death Star which can destroy a planet, there is the Starkiller Base, which looks an awful lot like a planet-sized Death Star which can destroy an entire solar system in one go. And, once more, it is taken out by a fleet of ace pilots. You get the Big Bad murdering the mentor figure in front of the fledgeling Jedi. All this seems very familiar. But Han Solo highlights some of these similarities with disdain: "So, it's bigger." It's very safe ground to return Star Wars to its former glory, and if the plot takes the shape, it is a classic shape of storytelling: the hero's quest. Already it fits into the canon as if it were always part of the story (a feat the prequels never managed) and, as my friend Paul said the other day, it's good to watch a Star Wars film without knowing what was going to happen next. Roll on Episode VIII!

Tuesday, 5 January 2016

Today's Reading:
After the doom and gloom that was Disclaimeryesterday, today I'm reading a young adult novel from Annabel Pitcher, author of My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece, which I listened to as an audiobook and loved, and Ketchup Clouds, which I found disappointingly forgettable. Thankfully, Silence is Goldfish is impressing me so far, with lyrical prose and a bright, imaginative and passionate protagonist in Tess Turner. Tess is an outsider, and at least inside her mind she has a strong yet introverted personality. She knows what she likes, and yet she's under pressure to fit in at school. Being around people makes it harder to be yourself when you're an introvert, harder to be confident when the bullies are taunting you, and when her father keeps on giving her conflicting advice about whether she ought to fit in or stand out from the crowd, it is hard. But she tries, to please him, until the day she reads something he's written about her that brings everything she tried to be, everything she thought she was, crashing down around her.

Lend books to someone who dog-ears pages or lend books to someone who reads with cheesy Cheetos fingers?

Dog-ears, but only paperbacks, and nothing specials.

Be able to meet one character of your choice or meet one author of your choice?

Well, I met Neil Gaiman in 2013, so that's accounted for. So I suppose the obvious answer would be to meet Anne Shirley and be kindred spirits with her in person as well as through the pages of her books.

Never be allowed in a book store again or never be allowed in a library again?

This is an evil question. I could never give up bookstores, so I'll have to say library, but that would also be a big gaping loss. You can take more chances on library books, because you don't lose anything if you don't like or don't read a book you borrowed. And yet... I just couldn't live without bookshops.

Have to choose one of your favourite characters to die in their book or have to pick one of your favourite couples to break up in their book?

Usually I find couples are more interesting when they're not actually together, so as long as they're both decent characters and both get to stick around, I don't really care if they break up (with a couple of exceptions.) Then again, if it's a really good death scene, it can be satisfying even with the loss of a favourite character. But yeah, I'm not that bothered by romance. It's usually a thing to be endured for the sake of the rest of the story.

Be required to read Twilight once a year for the rest of your life or The Scarlet Letter once a year for the rest of your life?

I've never actually read The Scarlet Letter, so I can't really answer that one. I have a lot of problems with Twilightbut it is perfectly readable and I did enjoy it on my first reading, until I stopped to think about it critically. So that wouldn't be a major hardship, and I quite enjoy snarking about it.

Tuesday's Stats

Books read: Silence is Goldfish

Pages read: 363 so far

Running total for the week: 2 books finished, 651 pages.

Favourite read of the week so far: Silence is Goldfish

Today in six words: book hermit catching up on reviews

When I wasn't reading I was... sleeping in, scheduling reviews for when I'm at work from tomorrow.

Monday, 4 January 2016

Much as I love the Christmas and New Year festivities, it's always good to get back to the calm and quiet of normality afterwards, and the Bout of Books readathon is a good cushion between the holiday (not that I had a holiday, I worked extra instead, but that's just part of working retail, and I'm used to it by now) and the rest of winter stretching out before me.

My Readathon Goals:

To read a minimum of four books from my pile.

To write update posts on the days I'm not working (Monday, Tuesday, Friday and Sunday) and to spend my free time on my working days not on the internet, but engrossed in my books.

To write and schedule my long-overdue review posts, so that I'll update the blog with something every day this week. (I've had a half-written review of A Little Life in my drafts folder for about two months now!)

To spend time getting to know new blogging friends as well as the old ones. That's where I tend to fall down during readathons.

Unrelated to the book-pile, I also have a comic to read, Jen Campbell's latest poetry booklet from her 100 poem weekend of last year, and to read over the first-draft-so-far of my novel-in-progress, which I want to get back to writing after the readathon.

Monday's Reading:

I've kicked off the readathon with Disclaimer by Renee Knight, the big thriller of the moment. It's Waterstone's Fiction Book of the Month, WH Smith's Read of the Week, and is supposedly "the new Girl on the Train," (which in turn was the new Gone Girl, which was the new Before I Go To Sleep.)

The book opens when Catherine, a successful film-maker, discovers that the book she's reading is based on her own life, on a dark secret from many years previously. But who could possibly know these things she's kept hidden all this time, and why publish it now?

Disclaimer has a fascinating premise, a good hook that keeps you turning the page, and yet I'm finding it somewhat frustrating that the author is clearly withholding information. Naturally, withholding information is a crucial element of a thriller, but in this case, the point-of-view characters know all the facts while the reader does not; you don't get to find things out with them. You watch the story unfold but are unable to fully experience it with the characters. It's still successful in making me want to read on, and know more, but I feel the hand of the author through it all.

6PM Update: It's difficult to talk about thrillers without giving details away, but I'll do my best. I'm now about two thirds of the way through Disclaimer and have spent about the last seventy five pages getting rather angry with the characters and also the book. When we finally get around to seeing the secrets revealed in the book-within-a-book, I felt cheated and rather disgusted. The Big Reveal was no revelation at all - Catherine's secret was disappointingly obvious. And yet. We have to remember that the book based on Catherine's life was a fictionalised account reconstructed by a third party. An even more unreliable narrator than the ones we've encountered so far. With a hundred pages left to go, I'm coming to realise that things are be as we've been led to believe after all, and that our protagonist is more sympathetic than I had thought.

8PM: In the end, I can't say that reading Disclaimer was an entirely enjoyable experience. The final twist was shocking, brutal in its description when at last we find out what really happened twenty years previously, but also did not come as a surprise. It was an uncomfortable read,throughout, a raw examination of the damage done to relationships by pain and grief, festering secrets, lack of communication and trust. And the last revelation on the final page will bother me for a long time.

I'm not sure I can pick up another book straight away; I need time to ponder and digest what I've been reading today, so I think I'll spend my evening in the company of the fabulous Agent Carter in her search for justice.

Monday's Stats:

Books read: Disclaimer

Pages read: 288

Running total for the week: 1 book finished (288 pages)

Today in six words: Gripping but uncomfortable book of secrets.When I wasn't reading I was... cleaning, and later watching Agent Carter.

Sunday, 3 January 2016

Wasn't it just last week that I was bemoaning the lack of hoverboards in "the future" of 2015? And now the future is in the past, and there are things that people will insist on calling hoverboards on sale in Maplins, and causing accidents everywhere and being banned from public places but they are not hoverboards! Give us the real thing or go home, will ya?

Anyway, 2015 is over now, for which I think we're all grateful. It was a pretty rubbish year all round I think. Personally, I think I'm in a better place mentally than I was a year ago; I survived turning 30, continued with my writing, and mostly quit whinging about my life and became content with what I've got, the people, the opportunities, the freedom (and the books.) So there's that to be said for 2015, anyway. But for the most part, I'm glad it's behind us and although I know it's just a date, it's good to have a day to say "the future hasn't been written yet, so make it a good one" once a year.

I haven't made any specific new year's resolutions this year, just to be kind and to continue with my writing, but I have started keeping not one but TWO journals: one is for Ali Edwards' "One Little Word" project - you choose a word and ponder and write/scrapbook/create things about how that word will be significant throughout the year. I chose "Peace." And I've also made a variation of the "happy jar" where you write down good things that have happened and put them into a jar - or in my case, onto my page-a-day colouring calendar, which I stick into another notebook. If at the end of the year I find myself thinking again "nothing's happened," I can look back over all the good things I've done or experienced through the year and prove the opposite. (In theory, anyway...)

Christmas was a good, but quiet one. My sister came home for about ten days, and although I was working all week (the joys of retail!) I still managed to find time in the evenings to relax, watch films, eat lots of food and spend time with family and friends.

My presents:

From my parents:
DVDs of Marvel's Agent Carter (which I have been wanting to see ever since I heard it existed, but circumstances conspired against me) and season two of Star Trek: Deep Space 9.
Microwavable slippers! These work when nothing else will to banish cold feet forever!
(Not pictured: a new coat, laptop case, Thornton's chocolate Santa.)

From my sister:

Books: The Boy That Never Was by Karen Perry and The Geeky Chef Cookbook which has recipes for Butterbeer, Lembas, Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters and 1-Up mushroom cupcakes, among many other nerd-culture-inspired recipes. A fancy candle, and a Thunderbird 2 t-shirt. (When I was about 7 I really wanted to be Thunderbird 2 when I grew up. Not fly it. Be it.)

From Hanna:

Our little group of bloggers did a Secret Santa again this year, and Hanna sent me some amazing presents: the Tolkien's World colouring book, two YA novels: The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness and Silence is Goldfish by Annabel Pitcher, and an absolutely gorgeous infinity scarf/snood/whatever these joined-up scarves are called with a space pattern on it. I've been wearing that nearly every day since Christmas; I love it!

From other friends:

Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone - the illustrated edition, from Judith. I think most of my bookish friends have received copies of that this year. It's beautiful! She also got me some presents from the Literary Gift Company: a red tote bag with a quote about paradise being a library, some "Banned Books" matchbooks, a folding out "Gorjuss" photo box, and some amaretto-soaked sultanas from Hotel Chocolat. (These did not last long.) Sammy and her family bought me lots of bath and shower smellies, and two Funko Pop figures: Zoe Washburn from Firefly (taking on a dragon on my bookcase in the picture above) and a mini Eleventh Doctor on a keyring. From my uni friends I got several small things: a box of bookish pencils, a knitting brooch, some bookmarks and a little leaflet filled with writing prompts for coffee shops, which I've tucked into the back pocket of my handbag-notebook so I've got it with me wherever I go.

Bout of Books

Now that Christmas and New Year are over, the rest of winter is stretching out long and grey before us (at least, those of us in the Northern Hemisphere.) So, now that things are quietening down, what better than to snuggle up with a big mug of coffee (tea, hot chocolate or other beverage of choice) and a good book? And the Bout of Books readathon returns just in time for that tomorrow. Hurrah! I don't exactly need an excuse to be a book-dwelling hermit, but it's nice to have company (on the internet, not in the room) while doing it. So I'll be eagerly taking part and making my way through my January to-read pile. 4 books in a week is my usual readathon target, and the rest of the pile should take me through to the end of the month (although as always subject to what I feel like reading at the time.)

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell - Susanna Clarke. I bought this for my dad years ago and have been meaning to borrow it back for ages. I thoroughly enjoyed the BBC adaptation last year, and it was very strange for me to be the only person in the room not to have read the book it was based on - especially when it was a particularly Katie story.

The Long Way to a Small Angry Planet - Becky Chambers

Upstairs at the Party - Linda Grant

The Drawing of the Three - Stephen King. I had a mini-splurge in Waterstone's a couple of days after Christmas. I read The Gunslinger, the first book in King's Dark Tower series. I had a bit of trouble with the first book, but enough people (especially Laura and Judith) rave about the series as a whole, and I know just enough about it, that I want to continue and see what all the fuss is about. Apparently it brings together all sorts of elements from King's entire canon, which is odd as it seems to take place in a different world (but with just enough specific details from ours to be confusing, such as "Hey Jude" in a setting reminiscent of America's Old West.)

Silence is Goldfish - Annabel Pitcher. I don't know much about this book except that it deals with either elective or selective mutism. I really loved Pitcher's first book, My Sister Lives on the Mantlepiece, although I found Ketchup Clouds pretty forgettable. I have high

The Rest of Us Just Live Here - Patrick Ness. What about the kids who aren't the Chosen Ones when Things Start To Happen?

Disclaimer - Renee Knight. I found this one in a charity shop and had been pondering it for a while. It was supposed to be "for people who liked The Girl on the Train, but I wasn't madly in love with that one; it was okay but I expected more, considering how massive it's been. (It's been out for a year and no sign of a paperback yet. And there won't be, while people are still prepared to pay for the hardcover.) But Disclaimer has an interesting premise: someone realises that the book she's reading is based upon her own life. But who knows enough about her secrets to turn them into a novel?

Career of Evil - "Robert Galbraith." J. K. Rowling's third pseudonymous crime novel about private detective Cormoran Strike and his assistant Robin. I had to get that in hardback to match the first two in the series. J. K. Rowling proves herself an expert weaver of plots in every genre she's turned her hand to, and I look forward to being ensnared in her web once more.

Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen. I am long overdue a Jane Austen reread, and actually, because I know it so well through the many adaptations and variations, Pride and Prejudice is probably the book I've read least.

Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens. My Grandma passed on her complete Dickens set to me a few years ago, when she moved out of her house into a flat, and again, it's been a while since I've read any of his work. (The complete works of Dickens don't really count as part of the to-read pile, as they will probably take decades to get through. But I do intend to get through them all eventually.)